IBM document processors


IBM manufactured and sold document processing equipment such as proof machines, inscribers and document reader/sorters for financial institutions from 1934 to 2005.

IBM and document processing

Prior to the introduction of computers, cheque processing was performed manually by each institution. IBM recognised the opportunity to automate this processing and began a long period of building machines for this purpose, a period that started when IBM announced the IBM 801 Bank Proof machine in 1934. By eliminating hand written ledgers, the IBM 801 automated teller operations.
By the mid 1950s many banks began to investigate how they could use new technology to help them handle the ever growing volume of cheques that needed to be processed on a daily basis.   As an example, Bank of America's checking accounts were growing at a rate of 23,000 per month and banks were being forced to close their doors by 2 p.m. to finish daily postings. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, wages began to be paid by cheque and the number of cheques being cleared by the central clearing house had grown from around 250 million in 1938, to around 320 million in 1951 and continued ramping up, in fact reaching over 500 million by 1964.
A number of technologies were developed by companies like EMI in the UK, and Bull in France to make cheques machine readable by means of pre-printed characters or characters that were inscribed on the cheque when it was being proofed at the Branch. IBM Poughkeepsie lab under J.A. Weidenhammer meanwhile was working on developing equipment that could mechanically feed, transport and stack paper checks, because they could not be handled using existing techniques then being used with punched cards. They created a system of friction wheels and belts to achieve this. Meanwhile, another group within IBM collaborated with Weidenhammer on developing a machine readable magnetic ink barcode, printed below human readable numerals, which they demonstrated to Barclays Bank in 1957. But after much industry consultation, the E-13B MICR font developed by General Electric as part of a solution sold to Bank to America became the American Standard adopted by the ABA in 1958. The ABA had previously concluded that IBM's proposed marking system would be too costly and also, that it was visually unattractive. After some hesitation, IBM developed their own multi-track read head for MICR characters and switched to using E-13B. In 1959 they began promoting the IBM 1210.   IBM Supplies division also saw an opportunity in this period to sell paper checks, printed by IBM in an IBM Plant.
IBMs main competitors in this space in 1959 were Burroughs with their B101 Reader/Sorter which could sort 1560 documents per minute, sold as part of their B251 Visible Record Computer System, and NCR who sold a sorter jointly developed with Pitney-Bowes that also used components supplied by General Electric.
By 1963 the American National Standards Institute adopted the ABA specifications as the American Standard, along with countries like the UK, Canada and Australia. Meanwhile, CMC-7 was adopted as the French standard in 1964 and grew to be widely used in Europe and South America.
Adoption of these sorters was usually linked to adoption of the Computer System it attached to, although the first 1210 rented by Barclays Bank in 1960 was used purely in an offline capacity before the Bank bought an IBM 1419 attached to an IBM 1401 in 1963.  Initial adoption also required new procedures and standards to be adopted, for instance Martins Bank in the UK took delivery of an IBM 1412 on 22 October 1961, but it was not fully operational till April 1963.
Document processing usually involved the following process. Firstly documents to be proofed would be loaded into the hopper of a proof machine and then fed through the machine one at a time. For each document:
  • The document would be read: The operator would read the value of each document and key that value into the machine. The machine would keep a running total of amounts and usually print that out.
  • The document would be inscribed: Inscribing was the process of printing the value of the document onto the document, so it could be electrically read back by either the proof machine or a reader/sorter.
  • The document would be endorsed: Endorsing was the processing of stamping the document, either on the front or the back or both.
  • The document would be sorted: Proof machines could then sort the document into pockets.
As an example the IBM 4723 order of operations was described as follows:
Hopper --> View --> Slot --> Read -> Stamp front -->. Audit Trail Print --> Inscribe -->. Stamp back -->. Sort
After proofing the documents would then be sent to a reader/sorter for data capture and final sorting. The sorter may endorse the document as well as print a sequence number on the document. The sorter may also microfilm the document, while later sorters may have used document imaging technology.

Proofing machines and inscribers

IBM 801

Announced by IBM in 1934, the IBM 801 could list and separate checks, endorse them and record totals. It was withdrawn on Jan 18, 1956. The 801 is unrelated to the later IBM 801 processor.

IBM 802

Announced by IBM in July 1949, the IBM 802 is a proofing machine that could sort, list, prove and endorse checks and sort them into 24 pockets. It was withdrawn on June 28, 1965.

IBM 803

Announced by IBM in July 1949, the IBM 803 is a proofing machine that could sort, list, prove and endorse checks and sort them into 32 pockets. This machine remained in the IBM Sales Manual till Dec 18, 1981.

IBM 1201

The IBM 1201 is a proof inscriber, that could perform all the functions of an IBM 803 as well as document inscribing. It has 10 models offering a variety of options including up to 32 pockets plus document endorsing as an optional feature. IBM Rochester began shipping the IBM 1201 in August 1961. In 1963 IBM Supplies introduced a new endorsing roll for the IBM 1201 which can provide for up to 375,000 endorsements. It was withdrawn on Nov 22, 1978.

IBM 1202

The IBM 1202 Utility Inscriber is a specially designed electric type-writer that is used to inscribe documents prior to them being sorted. It was announced Jan 12, 1959 and withdrawn April 26, 1966.

IBM 1203

The IBM 1203 is a unit inscriber that can print numerals and special symbols on documents using magnetic ink. It is also an adding machine. It was manufactured by IBM Rochester. It was announced Mar 8, 1961 and withdrawn Nov 22, 1978.

IBM 1206

The IBM 1206 described either as a coder or encoder, was a CMC-7 inscriber. The Belgian GIRO Administration was using 26 of them in 1970, attached to Olympia adding machines.

IBM 1260

The IBM 1260 Electronic Inscriber was a proofing machine with eight stackers. It could inscribe documents as well as optionally endorse them. Three or five external stackers could optionally be added. It was manufactured by IBM Rochester until September 1971, although it remained available for rental for many years afterwards.
It was approximately.
It was announced on July 1, 1965, and withdrawn on December 18, 1981.

IBM 4723

Announced by IBM in May 1982, the IBM 4723 Finance Communication Document Processor is a small desktop reader and inscriber that attached to IBM 3600 or IBM 4700 Banking controllers using the B-Loop connection method.
It was developed by the IBM Nordic Laboratory in Lidingoe Sweden and manufactured by IBM in Greenock, UK.

Reader/Sorters

There are several families of IBM sorters. The IBM 1259 at 600 documents a minute. The smaller 1255/1270 running at between 500 and 750 documents per minute. The 1210, 1412, 1419 and 1275 moving from 900 to 1600 documents per minute. There were two midrange sorters, the 3892 and 3891, released in that order. Finally the IBM 3890 running at 2400 documents per minute.

IBM 1255 / IBM 1270

The IBM 1255 is a MICR reader/sorter. The IBM 1270 is an OCR reader/sorter that uses the same sorter engine as the IBM 1255 but with more processing hardware. The CMC-7 models of the IBM 1255 as well as the IBM 1270 were not offered for sale in the United States.
The input hopper holds a 5-1/2" stack of documents that uses a gravity feed. Each stacker pocket can hold up to 2-1/2" of documents.
Two offline sort patterns are possible but with a 6 stacker sorter, it is typical to sort in two phases. Phase one sorts on the even digits of one field with odd digits going to the reject stacker. Phase two sorts on the odd digits of one field. The operator can leave the documents from phase one in the stackers when starting phase two. If a 12 stacker sorter is in use then sorting can be done in a single phase using ten stackers, with the remaining two stackers being used for rejects and special sorts.
The 1255 and 1270 can be attached to an IBM System/3, IBM System/32, IBM System/34, or IBM System/36 using a serial I/O channel adapter. They can also be attached to a System/360 or System/370 parallel channel.

IBM 1255

There are six models, the differences being: maximum speed; stacker count and whether the sorter could read E-13B or CMC-7. Models 1, 2 and 3 are E-13B while models 21, 22 and 23 are CMC-7. Models 1, 2, 21 and 22 have 6 stacker pockets while Models 3 and 23 have 12.

IBM 1270

There are four models. Models 1 and 3 have 6 stacker pockets while Models 2 and 4 have 12 stacker pockets. The machine is both longer and heavier than an IBM 1255. The majority of the hardware for the extra pockets in the Models 2 and 4 appears to already be present in Models 1 and 3.
ModelMICR TypeAnnouncedWithdrawnDocuments
per minute		Stacker
pockets		LengthWidthHeightWeightHeat output/hr
1255-1E-13BOct 20, 1970Oct 1, 19855006
1255-2E-13BOct 20, 1970Oct 1, 19857506
1255-3E-13BOct 20, 1970Nov 3, 198775012
1255-21CMC-75006
1255-22CMC-77506
1255-23CMC-775012
1270-1/3OCR6
1270-2/4OCR12